The Graveyard Book
‘The Graveyard Book’ is one of the most famous works of the prolific English author Neil Richard Gaiman, more commonly known as Neil Gaiman. The author is multi-talented and his most famous and critically acclaimed work is the graphic novel or comic book series, “The Sandman”. But he also writes fiction and fantasy novels for people of all ages; from children to adults. Besides being a writer, he is also a journalist, a song writer and screenplay writer for many famous movies like Beowulf and Stardust. He has also written “Don’t Panic: The Official Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Companion”, as a humorous companion to Adam Douglas’ Hitchhiker series.
‘The Graveyard Book’ is fantasy novel for children. The story revolves around a small boy named “Nobody Owens”. Owens is taken in by a family living in the graveyard and raised by them after his whole family is killed by a mysterious man, referred to as Jack in the novel. The boy is the only living being in the graveyard, the rest of the inhabitants include mythical creatures like werewolves, ghosts and other creatures haunting the cemetery. The book follows Nobody’s, or Bod as he is often called in the novel, life as he tries to live a normal life in spite of being brought up in a graveyard. He also befriends a girl called Scarlett in his childhood and has some adventures with her. The rest of the book tells the story of Bod being chased by Jack when he finds out that one member of the family has survived.
‘The Graveyard Book’, published in September 2008, has become one of the most honored children’s books in the last decade. In 2009 it won the Newbery Medal, Hugo Award for Best Novel, Booktrust Teenage Prize and Locus Award for Best Young Adult novel. It also won the Carnegie Medal in Literature in 2010 becoming the first novel to win both the Carnegie and Newbery medals. It was also shortlisted for many other literary honours like the British Fantasy Award for Best Novel. The audio book version of the novel is also very famous, winning two Audies; Children’s 8-12 and the Audiobook of the Year.
It is rumored that the Irish Academy Award-winning filmmaker (Best screenplay for The Crying Game), Neil Jordan has been signed to write and direct a movie adaptation. The movie was said to be in pre-production in January 2010. The film was taken up to be produced by Miramax Studios at Disney, but when the studio was shut down two years ago, the future of the venture seems in jeopardy. Neil Gaiman however remains hopeful and has asked the fans of the book not to lose hope. Gaiman wrote on his official website, “…we were setting up the film of The Graveyard Book at Miramax, but then last autumn Disney closed down Miramax (and just put it to sleep forever), so The Graveyard Book film is now being set up elsewhere. In ‘putting a movie together’ world that barely counts as a hiccup.”